El Paso County Democrats allege texts were sent to mislead voters on their recreational pot stance
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - A political organization is accused of falsely representing the El Paso County Democrats in mass text messages sent out to voters. These texts claim the county party wants people to vote against the recreational pot ballot measure, while party leaders say it all stems from a simple mistake on social media.
El Paso County Democrats the situation all started with a post to their Facebook page on Friday, which listed out reasons to vote against ballot question 300, which would legalize recreational marijuana sales in Colorado Springs. A similar post was also published on their website. You can see those below:
However, party leaders say that those posts were an accident. Vice Chair of the party, Rob Rogers, explains to KRDO13 that typically two versions expressing both sides of a given topic are drafted, and in this case, the wrong one was posted to their website, and Facebook.
Party leaders claim it was that slip-up, that led to a misleading mass text sent by the "Colorado Springs Safe Neighborhood Coalition", seen below.
"Any objective person viewing that text message, it looks like it was sent from us." argued Rogers. "They saw an opportunity to take advantage of a situation without coordination, without any kind of approval being even being asked for and decided to use our name to influence a specific segment of voters in the direction that they're being paid to." he added.
The Coalition maintains that they were simply going off of those posts before sending the text, seeing that an opposing party was siding with their stance on the topic of legalizing recreational marijuana.
The County Democrats however say that they quickly deleted the posts within 24 hours, and corrected their stance on their website.
They then included a response to the situation to clear the air, in their weekly newsletter.
Rogers says however, that the party's stance on the topic has long been made clear.
"Our executive committee actually voted to support question 300 back in February." said Rogers.
Daniel Cole, who was responsible for sending out the mass text message, tells KRDO13:
"Statement 300 is written in such a confusing way, that even a major party can't decide whether it likes the measure." typed Cole. He added, "Colorado Springs voters defeated recreational marijuana sales just two years ago. This time, the marijuana industry reasoned that their only hope to pass the measure is to make it as confusing as possible. 300 should be voted down, and Question 2D, which simply and clearly prohibits recreational marijuana sales, should be passed."
Cole sent in a separate message, that "Also: Citizens for Responsible Marijuana Regulation got this wrong, and they're wrong about 300 and 2D, too."
The City of Colorado Springs, who oversees the local election involving several ballot measures like question 300, says that it does not regulate political messaging such as in this situation and added that no complaints have been filed.
Rogers tells KRDO13 that they are still discussing with their legal team, whether any action if at all, should be taken due to the actions of the Colorado Springs Safe Neighborhood Coalition.
We would like to address a recent miscommunication regarding our position on Colorado Springs Question 300. Our organization, which is powered entirely by volunteers, inadvertently shared incorrect language in a previous communication. To clarify, the Executive Committee of the El Paso County Democrats voted in February to support Question 300.
We have long supported Native Roots and their efforts to ensure safe, regulated access to marijuana in Colorado Springs. We believe that Question 300 will play a vital role in keeping marijuana sales local, allowing established medical dispensaries to expand their customer base, and providing much-needed revenue for our city. This initiative will directly benefit our community, especially those who rely on medical marijuana.
Additionally, we want to alert you to misleading information circulating from groups like the Colorado Springs Safe Neighborhood Coalition. These bad actors do not represent our views and are part of the increasing trend of divisive and deceptive political tactics. Please rest assured that we stand by our decision and will continue working towards policies that strengthen our community.
Thank you for your continued support.
El Paso County Democratic Party
You can read about all the ballot measures in the November 2024 election for El Paso County, here.
